Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs) and Martin Scorsese team on this gritty anecdote about the past triads of ’80s New York.

Revenge of the Green Dragons is a tale of Chinese youths who grew up fighting in gangs on the streets of America. Modelled upon echoes of the Hong Kong triads, clichés of gangster movies abound throughout.

Green Dragons‘ heart lies in the bare retelling of this hidden American history. The audience is delivered this epitaph of a disgruntled past within a simple narrative, making it feel like several recent HK outings but with a transposed setting of the USA.

RotGD stumbles as a Western blockbuster cruising on Scorsese’s name, but shines as an Asian release. Green Dragons is a top notch film – it was just released by the wrong producer.

RATING: 3/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Ray Liotta, Justin Chon, Shuya Chang, Kevin Wu, Harry Shum Jr.

DIRECTORS: Andrew Lau & Andrew Loo

WRITERS: Andrew Loo & Michael Di Jiacomo

SYNOPSIS: Two best friends rise through the ranks of New York’s Chinese underworld in the 1980s.